Introduction
Finding moments of calm in this fast-paced world we live in today can be difficult. Sometimes, things may seem very overwhelming. Whether you find living or surviving tough because of your job, family life, relationships, or even financial hardship, it’s important to achieve a good sense of self, restore inner calm, and maintain peaceful thoughts.
Here are seven ways to calm your mind and body the peace and serenity you need most:
1. Breathwork
Breathwork is an amazing tool to stabilize your heart rate, get that blood pressure down, and cast away negative thoughts when you undergo a buildup of stress [1]. There are many methods and breathing techniques you can add to your daily routine, but to practice focused breathing is a good place to start:
Find a place where you can sit or lie down comfortably. First, take a normal breath – then, follow it with a deeper one, breathing in slowly through your nose, feeling your chest rise and lower abdomen rise until your lungs are filled.
Exhale slowly from your mouth, continuing to focus on this process of deeply breathing in and out. Try closing your eyes so that all your senses are focused on breathing, and with regular ten-minute sessions every day, you will soon find a sense of tranquility over your body and mind instilled daily.
2. Sound Healing
Music plays a genuinely restorative role in balancing your emotional levels when you need it and relaxing the body when it’s stressed [2]. The key isn’t necessarily a particular genre of music, though.
Studies have shown that while certainly, upbeat songs make a person feel more alert and slow music can help quiet the mind, the music that relaxes an individual most is the kind that they like most.
If Tibetan tubular bells aren’t your thing, then that’s not the best kind of music you should listen to for the body and mind to benefit from sound healing.
Find the music of your choice that you enjoy the most, and block out time in your day to close the door, shut your eyes and get your groovy tunes on, and you’ll feel more cool, calm and collected than Prince on a Saturday night.
3. Practice Mindful Meditation
Stress may crowd your headspace with a sense of disorder and chaos, making it impossible to dispel this thick jungle of thoughts. The benefits of meditation include clearing the mind and encouraging a deep state of relaxation and internal serenity. There are many ways to meditate but the simplest way is as follows:
Find a quiet spot, draw the curtains, and sit on the floor cross-legged. Rest your palms on your knees upturned, and close your eyes. Create about a wide-open space in your mind, and place yourself in the middle of it.
It can be somewhere in nature, or maybe a vast hallway with high ceilings. It should be empty, devoid of anyone else.
Breathe in through your nose and breathe out from your mouth. Focus on this image, and think about nothing else. You can do this for any amount of time, but try to do it for at least 20 minutes.
You’ll be left with a profound sense of peace afterward and a place to go to when you need to de-stress.
4. Listening to Mantras
It might seem a little cheesy, but it’s amazing how much listening to and repeating mantras can de-stress and restore inner-direction to a person. These positive affirmations work by realigning your subconscious mind from a negative to a positive outlook, beginning to work the minute you start listening to them [4].
Choose a mantra or affirmation that speaks to you and repeat immediately in the morning after waking up and in the evening before going to bed. This will boost your self-esteem and overall wellbeing in no time at all. Here are a few affirmations specifically for stress-relief:
– My mind and body are relaxed and calm –
~ I am peaceful and centered ~
5. Short Walks in Nature
A new therapeutic practice known as ecotherapy has demonstrated that walking in green spaces away from our usual busy urban environment results in positive mental effects. The idea is to get out into nature as much as you can, but even a short walk is better than nothing at all.
A 2015 study compared the brain activities of two groups, one walking in a natural setting and the other in an urban area [3].
The nature group was found to have much lower activity in the prefrontal cortex; a region of the brain associated with repetitive thoughts focused on negative emotions.
In addition to this, getting out for a walk provides an individual with some of the benefits of exercise such as lowering blood pressure, improving blood circulation, and decreasing the release of the stress hormone, cortisol. So why don’t you put on your hiking boots and head to the great outdoors!
6. Write
You might have had a journal that you wrote in as a child, documenting your day and noting your worries. Our day-to-day responsibilities as adults might mean you don’t have as much time for this as before. But it’s a great way to calm your mind and body or any inner-anxieties you might have.
Writing things down acts as a form of self-therapy since it can feel like a physical release of negative thoughts. Not only this, but a daily entry with weekly reviews can help you identify stress-triggers; and determine what situations you need to avoid.
7. Soak in a Warm Bath
A good body soak can help relieve muscle tension and stabilize your heart rate. Moreover, taking a bath an hour before bedtime can help set you up with good sleep for the night ahead. In addition to a warm bath, there are other bath treatments such as the Cold Water Bath, Neutral Bath, and Hot/Cold Application that are great for soothing anxiety[4].
People Also Ask:
A: Practicing several of the techniques mentioned above helps instill a sense of serenity into your day, so find the practices that work for you, and you’ll feel even calmer in tough times knowing you have a relaxation method you can depend on.
A: Mindfulness of your surroundings as well as self-awareness can keep your spirit-waters still and calm anxiety.
A: Meditation and listening to music are great ways to distract the mind from focusing on stress and anxiety. Close your eyes, perform breathing techniques, and stick on your favorite album - you’ll start to feel whole again before you know it.
A: Focused-breathing and positive mantras are short, sharp approaches to instantly calm your mind as they can be done wherever you are, and whenever a wave of anxiety hits.
A: There are a variety of herbal teas available that are well-known stress relievers - valerian root tea is especially famous for its soothing effects that improve your night’s sleep quality. Certain foods will also help alleviate anxiety and boost the mood, especially those that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, potassium and tryptophan. Some of the best brain foods to try include salmon, walnuts, turkey, bananas and dark chocolate.
Conclusion – Calm Your Mind And Body!
It might seem impossible to fit in time just for you in your day. But it’s so important to make sure you are looking after yourself mentally and physically. With the variety of techniques noted above, there should be something for everyone to squeeze into their routine.
Start small, perhaps with a five-minute breathing exercise, and see how it feels before building up to longer sessions and more practices that soothe the body and mind; and before you know it, you’ll be feeling better than ever and in a much calmer place than you were before.
